This invention relates to a method of making available economical fuels from arctic and subarctic environments without melting the permafrost along a transportation right of way. More particularly, this invention relates to processing and transporting steps to make available at a destination economical fuels from arctic and subarctic environments without melting the permafrost along a transportation right of way.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Early in man's history, he began to appreciate the advantages of external power. In the ensuing generations, many and varied were the approaches used to obtain power. The Industrial Revolution in the United States during the 19th century came about, in part at least, because of the ready availability of economical sources of energy.
Two recent developments in the U.S. have, however, brought about a re-evaluation of conventional technology. First, is the remarkable attention that has been devoted to improving our environment, reducing pollution and the like. The second is the so-called "energy shortage", evidenced by curtailment of deliveries of natural gas, gasoline and other petroleum products. An excellent discussion of these conventional sources of power, and their shortcomings is contained in an article entitled "Hydrogen: Its Future Role in the Nation's Energy Economy", W. E. Winsche, K. C. Hoffman, F. J. Salzano, SCIENCE, 29 June 1973, Vol. 180, No. 4093. Therein, the authors delineate the projected need for large scale economical sources of energy; such as, that derived from nuclear fission, solar or geothermal energy. The authors delineate the disadvantage of electricity; namely, the losses of up to 50 percent due to cost of transmission and distribution between the power generating plants and the destination. Moreover, electricity cannot be economically stored to level out the peaks and valleys of consumption. In that article, the authors go on to point out the desirability of hydrogen as a potential future fuel and delineate some of the cost considerations in manufacturing and distributing the respective fuels, or power sources.
It is becoming increasingly apparent that certain oil-rich areas of the earth may be able to exert a disproportionately large economical and political influence if a substitute is not found for the petroliferous fuels. One widely available substitute for the petroliferous fuels in coal. Moreover, in many cases, the coal contains less sulfur and other pollutants than the petroliferous fuels. The cost of mining and transporting coal over long distances has made it noncompetitive with crude oil heretofore, since crude oil was available at a cost of about 3 dollars a barrel. As crude oil increases in cost to 5 dollars a barrel or higher, coal becomes increasingly competitive as a source of fuel. For example, coal can be used as a fuel at a cost of about 20 cents per million British Thermal Units (BTU's). Large reserves of coal are available in the U.S.; notably, in the arctic and subarctic regions of Alaska. In these latter regions, however, the cost of mining and transporting the coal has been prohibitive, particularly in the summer when the top layers of the permafrost thaw to form the boggy morass through which vehicles can only difficultly manuever. It is known to transport aqueous slurries of coal containing up to as much as 60 percent by weight of coal. This has been termed "hydraulic" transport but has been disadvantageous, since the liquid phase was water and was not combustible. When the resulting slurry was employed it lowered combustion temperatures too much because of the water phase that had to be evaporated. If separation was attempted by quiescent storage, there were difficulties in obtaining separation of the coal from the slurry if the particles sizes were fine enough to flow as a true suspension, simulating a liquid flow.
The north slope of Alaska has large petroleum reserves; but these, too, are not readily available at destinations, such as seaports or the like, since pipelines have been delayed by environmentalists seeking to prevent the melting of the permafrost by transporting the heated flowable liquids through pipelines in the permafrost.
Thus, it can be seen that, despite the urgent need for more fuels and the ready availability of economical fuels in the arctic and subarctic environments, no completely satisfactory method has been provided to make these fuels available at destinations.